The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-12-03
Convention Address.
WHAT SHALL THE TEACHER TEACH2
BY REV. GEORGE CRUM.
(Macomb, ILL

electricity, people asked of what use is
it. To which his reply was: "What is the
use of childp 1t may become a man."
If 1 were asked of what use is the Sun
day-school, 1 would reply, it is to begin
the development of manhood. 1t is the
first prerequisite of religious growth in
the child. 1t is to incite the faculties
in which religion inheres, and to pre-
pare the child for the higher school in
religion, namely, the Christian church.
God has placed the religious faculty in
every child that lives.
The primary object of the Sunday
school is to train those who are not suf-
ficiently developed to comprehend the
higher teaching from the pulpit and
press. The Sunday-school is for def
mite purpose. That purpose is to build
manhood. The Sunday-school, in my
opinion, that loses sight of this purpose
must fail. 1t is not, then, because it is
fashionable to send children to Sunday
school, that we send ours. We send
them for definite purpose. Every
parent recognizes, or should, that chill
dren have religious natures, as well as
intellectual, and L believe God de-
sires that both natures shall be devel-
oped at the same time, that one shall
not be permitted to go far in advance
of the other. If the child's religious
faculty does not expand along with its
intellectual, is it filling its mission
Every faculty was given for use. God
has PLACED man in this beautiful world
for higher purpose than to satisfy the
wants of the body, and intellectual ma
ture. Mans mission is to grow in grace
and in the knowledge of the truth. And
we should teach that doctrine and those
principles which will produce that re-
suit. After ascertaining what we want
to do, it is not difficult in the majority
of instances, to tell how to do it. The
growth of every individual in this world
is INSTRUCTED. We have all been driven
from the garden of Eden. believe
the Sunday-school and church are for
the purpose of removing those barriers
and to introduce the soul in simplicity
and beauty Of holiness to its Father.
The mission of the Sundays school is
a noble mission, for it is to begin the
work which the church and other in
strumentalities are to carry through to
completion. 1t is then to baptize the
child with the spirit of truth, and keep
it in the line of Christian growth. 1t
is the grandest of all work. The indi-
vidual engaged in such work never
feels more confident the kingdom of
heaven has come to him than when he
is, by theory and example, leading little
children along, and in the line of this
development. His soul lifts itself to-
ward heaven to receive Gods blessing,
and in the effort to raise it, feels God
coming down to meet it. The soul
thus baptized with the spirit of love for
the right, lovely, true and good, speaks
in tones bespesking purity of purpose,
''Lord reveal unto me more that can
do to advance myself and fellowmen in
pure living"
He, therefore, who becomes teacher
in Sunday school, must, if his spirit has
been in communion with the spirit of
God, feel a great responsibility resting
upon him. He goes to his class on
Sunday morning, feeling that he is to
do work for the Master, work that will
show its impress long after he has gath
cred up his feet in death. If the teacher
as directed by the spirit of God instills
pure religion into the children entrusted
to his care, they will not only bless him
for what he has taught them, but will
cast a holy influence over the lives of
others. The teacher should not only
feel that his work is for time, but for
eternity. 1t is not only for the good
he can do the few children entrusted to
his care, that he is teacher in Sunday
school, but to prepare the few to be-
come disseminaters of truth and love.
The simple lessons we are teaching chill
dren in Sunday school, out of the Holy
Scriptures, nature, and our lives are be-
ing borne to the four quarters of the
globe. The first lesson to be taught is,
that it is the grandest, highest and
noblest of all work. He who goes to
his class imbued with this spirit, will
not be at loss to know what to teach.
Out of the abundance of the heart the
mouth speaketh. But if one goes to
his class feeling the grace of God is
lacking in his own heart, he may be
competent to teach theories, geography,
and history. But he will not be able to
reach children in the way God would
have them reached. He will be unable
to awake in them any degree of spirit
ual fervor. The teachers cannot give
out of his life that which he does not
possess. For a man to be successful
teacher, and know what to teach, he
must be Christian man at heart. He
must feel the influence of Gods spirit
on his. do not say we should deprive
those of the privilege of teaching who
do not belong to the church. But with the
same Christian characters it would be